Contingent Workforce Management Solutions: Managing The Hidden Workforce
AMS is recognised as the world leader in outsourced recruitment services. Our solutions involve far more than the recruitment of permanent employees – Contingent Workforce Sourcing and Management has been a core and integrated part of our offering for over fifteen years.
Workforces can be broadly divided into two separate groups: permanent or regular employees who are employed directly by an organisation, and contingent workers, who are engaged on a contract or interim basis as casual, temporary, contract or interim workers.
A well-managed contingent workforce provides significant scalability to organisations, accommodating both increases and reductions in the number of workers within a company with relative ease, without increasing the permanent head count.
There are few organisations in the marketplace that have the capability to build contingent workforce management into their clients’ overall talent strategy. As a resourcing and talent specialist, Alexander Mann Solutions weaves together permanent RPO and contingent workforce solutions to achieve the best outcomes for clients.
Benefits of contingent workforces
Contingent workforces provide significant capacity for organisations, especially in times of rapid growth and change – workers bridge the gap between the current permanent workforce capability or capacity and the organisation’s requirements. This is especially important in sectors that have cyclical or seasonal peaks in activity or in times of economic uncertainty.
In rapidly-moving sectors, such as technology and telecommunications, it’s common to engage contractors to deliver projects. Throughout project work a contingent workforce provides additional capability and also provides access to expertise that may not be available within the organisation’s permanent workforce.
Whilst the global regulatory and legislative landscape for the engagement of contingent workers is complex, broadly speaking they present real flexibility for employers as they typically do not carry all of the employment obligations that permanently employed staff may carry.
MSP solutions: proactive management of contingent workforces
How we do it
Alexander Mann Solutions’ Contingent Workforce Solutions (CWS) has an established methodology for taking control of contingent worker populations. When partnering with a client, we seek to resolve several critical issues.
How many workers are there?
Surprisingly, few organisations know their true contingent worker population. We work with multiple departments across the business to learn exactly how many contingent workers are currently engaged.
Where are they?
We provide a map of contractors throughout the organisation, aligning this with hiring needs and looking for opportunities to optimise the quantity, categorisation and cost of the workforce.
Are they compliant?
Regulation and legislation defines how organisations treat temporary workers and contractors; this landscape changes frequently and is very different in a range of geographies, hiring managers are frequently unaware of their responsibilities. We ensure compliance across every part of the business, minimising risk.
How much do they cost today?
Another surprisingly common unknown is the current, actual cost of contingent workers. This extends beyond a simple contract rate multiplied by the number of workers ; it encompasses the hidden costs associated with staffing agencies, social taxation, processing costs, invoicing, time-sheeting, vendor management, contract management, worker sourcing, VMS applications and one-off costs and expenses. Our teams have expertise in unpicking the actual cost of a contingent workforce and can show the effect on the balance sheet.
How much are they forecasted to cost tomorrow?
Many organisations are unaware of changes in the external market that may directly impact their contingent workforce. We have unrivalled expertise in benchmarking, forecasting and sourcing across the entire talent landscape, and provide excellent insight into the future cost of contingent workers.
How many vendors do I have?
Across a diverse organisation there may be a wide group of staffing agencies supplying contingent workers; proactively managing this group can reap significant benefits. We’ve undertaken supplier reviews for clients, creating preferred supplier lists and panels. And in many cases we’ve been able to suggest alternative suppliers that have delivered better results for clients in a more cost effective manner.
What technology can I use?
Where there is an on-going need for a contingent workforce population, it may be worthwhile investing in recruitment or VMS technology. The benefits are notable – process efficiencies, reduced errors, reduced reconciliation effort, better compliance through a consistent hiring and on-boarding process, regular management information and far better transparency on the contingent population. We can advise clients on the most appropriate technology to use, implement it, and manage it.
How we’re different
We’re not a staffing agency, we are independent and we don’t sell a particular technology. This neutrality gives us objectivity and allows us to freely manage every aspect of contingent workforces. This includes business consulting, vendor selection, worker sourcing, compliance tracking and management, interview logistics, offer management, assignment management, on and off-boarding, extension management, vendor and worker payments, and the production of management information. .
Additionally, our heritage is in outsourced recruitment, at the heart of which is direct to market sourcing. We utilise our client’s brand to build candidate pools and attract candidates. We can blend the best parts of a vendor-neutral service and complement it with dynamic direct to market sourcing – ultimately reducing cost of ownership and improving hiring cycle times.
International sourcing
The hot-button issue of the moment is how to manage contingent workforce populations on a multi-regional or global basis. There are no two countries that treat contingent workers in the same way; the rights of non-permanent employees vary greatly and are even more complex when contingent workers employed in one country and deployed to another.
Our global infrastructure and holistic approach to talent and resourcing means that we are uniquely positioned to advise on this issue.
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